As an added bonus, I’ve attached some pictures of sparks generated with my high voltage power supply, which I was able to fix. It appears as though the old MOSFET had blown, so I was able to recreate the circuit with no issues. Continue to the post for a few more pictures.

1. My flyback transformer driver was working intermittently for a period of time then suddenly stopped working. It seems as though there is a problem with either the 7805 or the PIC12F683, but I can’t pinpoint the problem because of events 2 and 3 below. I’ll have to double check to make sure that I didn’t accidentally fry any components with, ironically, static discharge.
2. My multimeter was accidentally left on the last time I used it, so the batteries were dead and I couldn’t check the voltages at different points in the circuit (to determine whether the PIC was switching the driver MOSFET). Why does this always happen at the most inopportune times?
3. My PIC programmer is no longer recognizing any of my PICs. I’m hoping that there’s just a problem with the firmware and that I can fix it by borrowing a friend’s programmer to reflash it, but nothing I could do last night would make the programmer recognize PIC12F675s, PIC12F683s, or PIC16F628s. Maybe this is a sign that I should get an ICD2…

So, in short, it was an overall crappy night. So, here are some of the latest videos with the high voltage flyback transformer zapping some more beer, rum, and just plain arcing just for the heck of it. I’m heading back home tomorrow for Thanksgiving tomorrow, so I won’t be able to debug the problems until I get back.

Beer:

Rum:

Arcing:

Disclaimer: The high voltage devices and schematics presented on this website (/) and the pages herein are for educational and experimental purposes only. Build and/or use at your own risk. I cannot be held liable or responsible and will not accept any type of liability in any event, in case of injury, damage to persons or property, or even death by building and/or using this device or any other high voltage device posted on this website. By accessing, reading, and/or printing the articles presented here you agree to be solely responsible and exempt me from any criminal and/or lability charges and/or suits. Please note that safety is the primary concern when working with high voltage circuits. Always be careful, use extreme caution with high voltage circuits, and play it safe!

Here is the full schematic for the driver. Yes, it is this simple. All that is needed is a power supply (preferably >9V), a 7805 +5V linear voltage regulator, decoupling capacitors (C1, C2, & C3), a PIC12F683, a suitable logic level power MOSFET (I used an IRL530), and a flyback transformer. It is important to note that the MOSFET needs to be heatsinked, otherwise it could overheat.

JP2 (FBPriP) is the positive input of the primary winding, JP3 (FBPriG) is the ground/negative input of the primary winding, and JP4 (FBSecP) and JP5 (FBSecG) are the positive and negative outputs of the secondary winding where the high voltage is generated.

The flyback transformer was found in a broken 21″ CRT monitor. An alternative to opening a CRT and exposing yourself to potentially harmful voltages is to purchase a replacement flyback transformer from a surplus store or from eBay. I experimented with the driving frequency to find the optimal output and found that 20kHz produced the longest arcs for this flyback transformer.

As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the setup and as the disclaimer above says: Always be careful, use extreme caution with high voltage circuits, and play it safe!

Source Code
This is the source code for the driver. Please note that the driving frequency can be adjusted by changing the following line:

delay_us(25);

12F683 Flyback Driver.c (hex)

Videos
Here are three videos of the PIC12F683 High Voltage Flyback Transformer Driver in action. The first video demonstrates the high voltage arcing through a beercap-ful of beer (Stella Artois) with a power supply voltage of 9V. The second video demonstrates the high voltage arcing through a cap-ful of rum (Sailor Jerry) with a 24V supply voltage. The third video demonstrates the high voltage arcing through a cap-ful of pancake syrup with a 24V supply voltage.

Pictures
Here are a couple of pictures from experimenting with the driver:

Beer:

Rum:

Pancake Syrup: